We absodent to combine the two issues. It is in- lutely have to do that. teresting that the House of Representa-. Legal immigrants. on the other hand. tives basically made the same decision are by and large great citizens. They when they deleted the significant por- are people who care about their famition. the portion of the illegal bill that lies. They are people who work hard. had to do with illegal Immigration. and They are people who played by the they made that same decision. The rules to get here. got here legally. and House of Representatives did. and they add a great deal to our society. did it by a fairly lopsided margin. The linkage of the legal and illegal The second reason that it s impor- bills. which is what this amendment tant to keep these issues apart is I be- really is going to end up doing. brings lieve that a yes vote on this amend- about a linkage and I think many ment does in fact merge the two Issues times a distortion of the correct analyand does In fact make it much more sis. Let me give two examples. two exdifficult and more unlikely that we amples of what failure to keep the diswill be able in this session of Congress tinction between the illegal Issue and to deliver to the President of the the legal issue does. United States for his signature an ille- I have heard many times the stategal Immigration bill. ment made that aliens use social servIf any of my colleagues who are in ices more than nativeborn Americans. the Chamber or who are watching this They are on welfare more. they use up back in their offices have any* doubt social services. they are a burden to soabout this. reflect on the debate of the ciety. The reality Is that statement may be last 2 hours and fast forward to later technically true. depending on how you on today with more and more and more state it. but If you talk only about debate. I think the longer you observe legal immigrants. that statement is tothis and how contentious some of these tally wrong. In fact. the facts fly in the legal immigration problems are and face of that because the facts show the disputes are. it will be clearly un- that legal immigrants are on welfare derstood that by taking a relatively less than nativeborn citizens. Alclean illegal immigration bill and though I have not seen any studies or dump the legal issues into it makes It empirical data about this. just from obless likely that we will ever been able servatlonadmittedly. it is anecto pass a bill and send it on to the dotalit would seem to me that the President of the United States. legal immigrants. citizens now. care I think there are clearly votes In this very much about their families and Chamber to pass a good illegal immi- have intact families and work very. gration bill. I am going to have an very hard. The fact is that they are on amendment later on to change a provi- welfare less.
Identified stereotypes
Legal immigrants are by and large great citizens. They are people who care about their families. They are people who work hard. They are people who played by the rules to get here, got here legally, and they add a great deal to our society.